


The Babysitter Is Evil

by GachMoBrea



Series: My Father, Barry Allen [13]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, Barry is Len's DAD, Barry to the Rescue!, Be prepared!, Child Abuse!, Controlled Rage, Evil Babysitters, Father!Barry, Gen, Grandpa!Joe, Little!Len, NOT FLUFF!, OOC, Scared!Len, Son!Len, Step-Mom!Iris, Then, Unaware!Barry, Warning!, angry!Barry, hurt/comfort?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-22
Updated: 2016-08-22
Packaged: 2018-08-10 07:17:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,762
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7835296
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GachMoBrea/pseuds/GachMoBrea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Barry hires a sitter to watch Len so that he can get his boss off his back about all his lost days.</p><p>Not all babysitters are created equal and Len gets the short straw with this one.</p><p> * Warnings for Child Abuse! Nothing too graphic, but it's there. *</p><p>(I do NOT intend to insult ANY babysitters/nannies/child caretakers. This is FICTION! Names/Events used are made up and do NOT reflect on ANYONE or ANYTHING!!!!)</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Babysitter Is Evil

**Author's Note:**

> ***Once again, 'B' is Barry POV - 'L' is Len POV***

All is NOT sunshine and roses in this universe.  
Evoline is a prime example of the evils of this world.

-L-

After the visit, Joe gets on Barry's case about his absent days and lack of work ethic.  
"Singh is starting to notice and if you don't get your act together, you'll wear his patience completely out," the detective warns his son-on-law.  
"I know," Barry sighs, rubbing at the back of his neck. "I've got a babysitter coming to watch Len when we're all out. I know I'll be able to catch up knowing he's being taken care of."  
"Good," Joe smiles, looking over to Len who was pretending to focus on matching the cards in front of him. "You need some help there, Lenny?"  
Len shrugs, "You can help me if you want to, Poppa."  
"Then I guess I'm helping."

The next morning, there's a raven haired teenager waiting for Len at the bottom of the stairs.  
"This is Len," Barry smiles at him when he makes it to the bottom of the stairs. "He's been acting pretty independent recently, so it's fine if you just let him do his own thing."  
"I'm sure we'll have a great time together, Mr. Allen," the girl, Len's new babysitter, smiles at her employer before leaning over to smile fake at Len. "I'm Evoline. It's nice to meet you, Len."  
"Hello," Len gives her a smile just as fake as her own. He turns to his dad, "What's for breakfast?"  
"Cereal," Barry answers, moving out of the way so Len can get to the kitchen. "I got a few new kinds for you to try."  
"Thanks," Len goes to the lower cabinets where the cereal is. He takes the chocolate one while the adults rush around to get to their jobs.  
"Bye, Lenny," Iris kisses him on the cheek before rushing out the door.  
Barry gives him about three hugs before Joe drags the man out as well. His grandpa still manages a, "Be a good boy, Len!" before the door fully closes.  
All is well and good, until Len finishes his breakfast and leaves the bowl on the table to look for something to amuse himself.  
"Take it to the sink," Evoline barks at him. Len startles, looking over to the teenager to make sure she was talking to him. The girl glares at him, "Take your dirty bowl to the sink. Now."  
"I can't reach the sink," he states simply, looking her over properly for the first time. She's wearing a leather jacket over her pink top that doesn't look like it really fits her. The combat boots look like a contradiction to her paisley print pants.  
She looks like a faker to Len. He could usually point them out easily.  
"You look tall enough to me," Evoline grabs his arm tight enough to bruise and drags him back to the table where she wraps his hands around the bowl, then she drags him over to the sink and moves him like a puppet to put the bowl into the sink.  
He can reach it, but just barely. It's more pushing it over the edge than actually putting it into the sink.  
"Told you," she huffs, finally letting go of him. "Next time, do it without me having to tell you."  
Len nods, running away from the teenager without a word and hiding in his room.  
He never had a babysitter in his universe. Lewis left them alone when he wasn't giving them one of his 'lessons'. He knows this isn't what Barry signed up for.  
Maybe he can just hide in the room for the rest of the day...

At lunch time, Evoline stomps her way into the room.  
"Time your second meal, Len," she motions with her head for him to leave.  
"I'm not hungry," he tells her, keeping his eyes on the comic book he found under his bed earlier. He's already read it five times, but a sixth time wouldn't hurt.  
There are more stomped footsteps, then his arm is being grabbed again, "I SAID, it's time to eat."  
Evoline rips the book out of Len's hand and tosses it away as she drags him out of the room and down the stairs. He loses his footing twice and almost falls but her vice grip keeps him upright.  
On the table, there's some nasty looking black-ish, green drink that she plops him in front of.  
"My mom has the whole house on a 'health cleanse' kick," the teenager snorts. "Like I'M going to drink that gunk."  
She pulls out a foil wrapped plate from the fridge and unwraps it on the counter.  
"Oh!" the teenager grins excitedly, picking up one-fourth of a sandwich. "Ham and cheese! My favorite!"  
Len crosses his arms, puts a hand over the sore spot, and glares at his babysitter, "Do you honestly expect me to drink this while you eat my real lunch?"  
"You said you weren't hungry," Evoline shrugs, munching away on the food happily. "If you change your mind, you can have my drink. Otherwise, I can honestly say I tried."  
Len pushes his chair back and jumps down. 'I'll just wait in my room until Barry comes home.'  
"Where do you think you are going," the teenager's question sounds more like a threat and Len turns wary eyes to his caretaker. She's frowning at him, eyes mere slits as she glares daggers at him. "Sit in your chair until lunch is over."  
"I'm not going to watch you eat my food," he tells her as icily as he can. He wishes, not for the first time, that his younger self was capable of sounding appropriately menacing.  
Evoline takes a step towards him and he takes a step back.  
"Get in your chair, Len," she orders darkly. "Or I'll put you in time out."  
He doesn't like the way she says that at all. He runs through his options: he could do it and maybe she'll leave him alone until Barry gets back, he could make a run for it and definitely tick her off, he could try fighting back and hope his small body was stronger than it felt.  
"I'm going to count to three," Evoline warns him, taking another step closer. "1...2-"  
Len goes back to his chair. As much as he wants to wipe the floor with the possessed girl, he's no match for her. And if she should catch him on the stairs, he isn't keen on risking a fall back down them.  
Because that's the type of sitter it seems Evoline is. The kind to toss her charges down a flight of steps if they go too far.

Out of sheer curiosity, Len tries the horrible looking drink. It tastes worse than it looks. His stomach grumbles afterwards, though, and he decides to sneak food upstairs for emergency rations in the future.  
"Okay," Evoline announces as she brushes the crumbs off her fingers. "You can take your cup to the sink now."  
Len scowls. The cup is bigger than both of his small hands combined. It's also full, so it will be difficult to carry. But he isn't about to get a repeat form this morning, so he pushes the cup to the edge, gets out of the chair, and reaches for it carefully from the ground. It sways in his hold as he carefully walks to the sink. As he passes the teenager, he decides to push his luck with a little revenge.  
He purposely spills the whole thing on her.  
"LEN!" Evoline screams, reaching for him.  
He runs.  
Len runs as fast as he can, faster than he has ever run before and makes it into his dad's room before the teenager can catch him. The gunk drink residue had slipped her up enough to give him a head start.  
He holds a hand to his chest, feels his heart beating a mile a minute as he leans against the locked door.  
The door shakes against him as the teenager vents her frustrations against it.  
Len feels like he's in some sort of horror film as he pushes back against the door with all his smaller body's might.  
"Just you wait until tomorrow you brat!" Evoline screams again, giving the door one final kick before stomping back down the stairs.  
Tomorrow? No, thank you. This whole situation has negated any warm feeling towards babysitters. He'll have to talk to Barry about giving the teen creature the boot.

Len decides to keep himself extra safe by hiding inside a second locked door. He lays down in the master suite bathroom and finds himself dozing off as he clutches at his rumbling tummy.

Hours later, or what he assumes is hours because there's no clock in the bathroom, Len hears the bedroom door opening.  
His body freezes in a crouch, gripping a roll of toilet paper if it turns out to be Evoline sneaking in to get him.  
"Len?" Barry's voice calls out strangely. "You in here, kiddo?"  
Len sags in relief as he gets out of his hiding spot and goes to his dad.  
When he opens the bathroom door, though, the speedster is not alone.  
Evoline is looking like the concerned sitter she was trying to make the adults think she was.  
"Oh, thank goodness," she sighs, pretending to look relieved. "I was so worried that I had shouted at him too harshly and that he would never come out."  
'Just shouted?' Len grimaces, readying himself to spill the entire story, but Barry crouches down in front of him with a disappointed look that shocks Len into silence.  
"Len," his dad says firmly. "It's not nice to push the babysitter around."  
"What?" falls out of his mouth in a whisper.  
"Evoline is only here to watch you while Poppa, Iris and I are at work," the speedster continues. "She's not taking our place and we'll always come back home to you every evening."  
"That's not why she's covered in the gunk," Len tries to explain but then the teen creature sighs sadly.  
"I told you," Evoline sighs again. "He kept making up stories about me. I tried to give him his space, tried to be friendly with him, but he just kept shouting at me about how I was being mean and hurting him."  
'Liar, liar Mick will set you on fire.' Len frowns. "I don't like you."  
"Woah there, son," Barry glances over his shoulder with an apologetic look to the creature before sighing. "That wasn't very nice."  
"She isn't very nice."  
"Can you try to like her?"  
Parents not only thought their kids were idiots, they also didn't listen to them very well.  
Len straightens, steps around Barry carefully, then runs for his room.

 

-B-

"I'm sorry he's giving you such a hard time," Barry rubs at the back of his neck after his boy had run off. "Did he get his nap?"  
"It's not that big a deal, really," Evoline smiles at him with a light laugh. "I'm used to kids hating me at first, but they eventually warm up to me."  
"He's been going through a lot lately too," he sighs. "Are you sure you still want to come back tomorrow?"  
"I wouldn't be very good at this if I gave up every time a kid didn't like me," the teenager shrugs. "Same time as today?"  
"Yeah," Barry nods, following the girl out of his room but pausing in the hall to stare at Len's doo. 'It's probably just a phase. Maybe he's feeling neglected? Or he's worried I won't come back?'  
He shakes his head, going down the stairs to pay Evoline.  
'I'm sure things'll be better tomorrow.'

-L-

Len ignored Barry that night and only ate dinner so that he wouldn't be up all night with hunger pains. Joe was working late on a case and Iris kissed him goodnight after he had already gone to bed.  
When the speedster came into the room to read to him, Len rolled over and pretended to be asleep.

 

The next morning, Len reluctantly went downstairs to find exactly who he didn't want to: Evoline.  
"Hey, Len," the teen offers him the same fake smile. "I hope we can have more fun today than we had yesterday."  
"I made muffins," Barry tells him, offering him one right there at the bottom of the steps. "I just want you to try and have fun, okay kiddo?"  
"That's going to be hard," Len tells him truthfully, taking the muffin before going to the kitchen to get more and something to drink.  
Iris gave him two juice boxes and a whole plate full of muffins, giving him a hug after settling him at the table then leaving for work.

Len manages to eat all the muffins before Barry leaves with a worried frown.  
Once the cars have driven off, Evoline turns a cold stare to him.  
He runs.

He makes it out of the kitchen and halfway up the stairs before the creature gets at his legs and he slips. Len protects his head with his arms as he lands on the wooden step and is dragged into Evoline's arms.  
"Time out is overdue," the creature seethes at him, throwing him into the laundry room; the only room where the door locked from the outside.  
His head hits against the dryer, but not too harshly to see stars. He rubs at the new sore spot as he looks around. There are clothes piled neatly on shelves on one side and heaps of clothes thrown all over the place on the other, the machines sit in the middle of the room with the bottles of cleaner lining in front.  
Len goes for the dirty clothes to check for spare change.  
He's up to $12.54 before Evoline decides to let him out.

For the rest of the day he ignores her and she ignores him. She doesn't even bother trying to feed him lunch this time.

By the time Barry gets home, Len's considering whether the crayons would be a good food alternative.

-B-

Barry gets a bad feeling the more his son ignores him. Evoline tries to sound positive about the whole thing, but the feeling only gets worse the more he listens to her.  
Then, three days after he's hired the teen to watch his boy, he catches Len undressing for his bath and ice floods his veins.  
There are bruises all over Len's upper arms. They're morphing together and it's hard to distinguish which ones might be older than the others. Evoline had said Len was being a little clumsy, but Barry can't think of how his little boy could have gotten so many in just one area.  
When he puts Len to bed that night, he asks him, "Where did you get those bruises?"  
"Doesn't matter," his son rolls over; just like he had been since the babysitter started to work for them.  
"It does matter, Len," Barry puts a hand on Len's shoulder but doesn't try to turn him back his way. "I told you I always want you to tell me everything."  
"I tried that," Len's little shoulder shrugs. "It didn't work."  
"When did you try?" he pushes, hoping his son would break out of whatever was bothering him to tell him so he could make it better.  
Len sighs, "I just want to sleep."  
Barry opens his mouth to try again but stops when he hears a quiet, "Please."  
"All right, Lenny."

 

Barry goes to the store and buys several nanny cams and hides them throughout the house. Iris is going to be late, taking a shift for a sick friend, and Joe is still wrapping up his latest case against the bank robbers; so he doesn't have to worry about explaining his actions as he rushes around the house.  
The bad feeling intensifies with each new camera placement. He makes sure that they aren't obvious, a few of them are in animals, and stands in the middle with the tablet that will help him keep track of them.  
'I really hope this ends up being nothing.'

-L-

Len grabs the whole cereal box the next morning and runs for the outside. It's a little chilly, but nothing coat worthy so he just sits on the swings and waits to see if the creature will follow him.  
Barry calls out to him from the back door to say his goodbyes. Len waves slightly at him, but doesn't move from his spot.

When Evoline comes outside, he goes up the playset to stay out of reach.  
"The old man was acting funny this morning," the creature puts her hands on her hips. "You tell him anything, brat?"  
"That you're a blood sucking creature of darkness?" Len jokes without any of the confidence he wants to have. "No, I kept that out of the bedtime story."  
"Get in the house," she barks pointing to the building. "Or I'll spray you with the hose."  
"I'm not sure you're smart enough to know how that works," he smirks at her, enjoying the red faced ager he gets.  
"I'm gonna beat that smile off your bratty face!" she reaches for him but he quickly runs to the other side of the playset. When she goes for the ladder, he waits until she's almost all the way up before sliding down the slide and taking off towards the house, abandoning the cereal to make himself lighter.  
The door slams closed behind him but the creature's too close to lock it, so Len goes for the hidden storage room under the stairs.  
It clicks closed just as Evoline shouts her frustrated entrance.  
"Get your tiny butt out here, Len!" she barks near the door and he hold his breath.  
There are steps on the stairs and he lets out a breath.

Then the door swings open and he's dragged out of his hiding spot and into the living room.  
Memories of Lewis and his other past flash through his head as Evoline pushes him around and screams at him.  
"You tiny brat! I can't believe I need to watch you to buy that iPod! The world hates me so it hates you!"  
She backhands him and he skitters back as far as he can, hitting his back against the wall as his body shakes in fear.  
"You're nothing but a-" The door slams open and the creature whirls around to see who's there.  
Len turns to look too and the world focuses on the figure.  
Barry, chest heaving and eyes dark and menacing step carefully over to the teenager.  
"Mr. Allen!" the teen hurries to plant a smile on her face. "You're home early! Is everything okay?"  
"What," the speedster spits, then pull his lower lip in for a second, takes a breath. "What do you think you are doing?"  
Len swallows, the fear melting away as he watches his Dad approach Evoline like a predator about to devour a meal.  
"Oh, well, you see, Len was-"  
"I didn't ask about Len!" Barry bites out through clenched teeth, nearly on top of the creature now. "I asked what YOU were doing!"  
"I'm-I'm-I," Evoline stutters, eyes large and scared as she looks at the taller adult.  
"Get out of my house," his Dad orders her, voice deep and unwilling to accept anything other than obedience.  
Len has only ever seen The Flash run as fast as Evoline did.

Barry collapses in front of Len, all menace and dark fury gone from his face in a split second.  
"I'm so sorry, Len," his Dad whispers, reaching for him with a slight tremor in his arms. "I am so, so sorry."  
Len leaps into his arms. Barry's wrap around him like a safety net and he dissolves into overjoyed sobs.

-B- {Back Track, Then Catch Up}

Barry keeps one eye on his work and one eye on the tablet. For the first hour there's nothing, his son being outside while Evoline plays on her phone at the couch.  
Then the teenager goes out the door and Barry has enough time to think he was wrong before his boy comes running back into the house like he was being chased by a monster and hides under the stairs.  
Evoline rushes in next, red-faced and screaming as she searches for Len.  
All focus on his work vanishes as Evoline pretends to walk up the stairs, only to rip his boy out of his hiding place and drag him into the living room.  
He runs from the precinct with the words "You Tiny Brat!" ringing through his head.

Barry stops outside his house and tries to push down his rage as he reaches for the doorknob.  
"You're nothing but a-"  
He slams it open and Evoline whirls around to stare at him.  
Anger rages inside him, burning in his chest as he imagines throwing the teenager into the nearest volcano.  
He doesn't even realize he's taken a step closer until Evoline is faking a smile at him and pretending that everything was 'just fine.'  
"What," he tried to say calmly but it doesn't work. He stops, takes a breath before trying again, "What do you think you are doing?"  
He comes closer to the teenager as she starts to lie to him, "Oh, well, you see, Len was-"  
"I didn't ask about Len!" Barry bites out through clenched teeth, hands nearly vibrating at his side to strangle the girl in front of him. How DARE she lie to him AGAIN about his son?! "I asked what YOU were doing!"  
"I'm-I'm-I," Evoline stutters, finally realizing she should be afraid.  
He can't stand to look at her anymore.  
"Get out of my house," He orders her, leaving no room for argument as he barely reins in his ability not to strike her.  
Evoline runs and Barry doesn't bother to watch her leave.

He looks down at his frightened boy and his heart aches as he falls to his knees.

"I'm so sorry, Len," his voice is so weak. He failed his boy. He brought that monster into his house. Put it in charge of his precious child. He reaches for Len, arms shaking with the guilt he deserved to let crawl over his skin. "I am so, so sorry."  
Len leaps into his arms. Barry wraps his arms around him as if to protect him from any more dangers in the world. His boy's sobs break his heart into pieces and he can't help but shed a few tears of his own.

-

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry.
> 
> (*I still own nothing.*)


End file.
